The present disclosure relates to a virtual server managing distributed overlay network data traffic. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a data traffic module executing within a virtual switch that directs data packets to/from virtual machines according to distributed overlay network policies.
Physical networks include switches and routers that transport data between host computing systems, storage locations, and other computing entities. Virtualization technology enables system administrators to shift physical resources into a “virtual” domain, which includes virtual networks, virtual machines, and virtual switches. The virtual networks are defined at the OSI model layer 2 level (data-link layer) and, as a result, the virtual networks are constrained by the physical network's topology (e.g., router placement). In addition, a host computer system typically uses a hypervisor to instantiate and manage the virtual switch. As a result, the virtual switch is tightly coupled to platform dependencies of the hypervisor.